Before you start, you need to have a strategy

Leadership is both an art and a science. You have to be able to understand the science before you can paint the portrait of organizational success.

Success doesn’t happen by chance. American comedian Milton Berle once said that if opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.

Women are expected to mostly be team players, and not be so much focused on themselves.

Being strategic about your career is about having a plan: knowing where you want to go and how to get there. Strategy is a key to success.

How do you become a strategic thinker and use it to progress your career?

First, you need to think about what you want, and then identify the steps that will lead you to your goal.

Second, you need to be aware of what’s going on around you. You may have a goal, but you also need to understand how other things might impact your goal. You need to understand the context in which your goal sits.

Third, put yourself in other people’s shoes. Understand what it is that other people want or value. In order to add value, you have to be valuable to someone else.

Where should you start developing your strategic plan?

You have to take small steps. Sometimes our goals are massive, and we don’t know where to start.

Make daily, weekly, monthly sub-goals that continue to move you closer to your ultimate goal.

Also, write it down. When you see it, you can pursue it better. Sometimes people are hesitant to put down numbers.

Share your goals with others, if it helps you to be more accountable. If you are not intrinsically motivated to achieve your goal, it’s going to be difficult for you to do so. It has to come from you. You have to want it more than anyone else.

How do you market yourself for maximum exposure?

Your mindset is critical to your future success.

You are your best advocate. You have to identify your opportunities. Every great company has a marketing team. You have to think of your career as your business, and you have to be your own marketer.

It’s absolutely critical to know what is going on around the world. Our knowledge is only valuable if it’s timely. People are not going to listen to you or pay for your services if what you say or what you provide is outdated.

The brands that survive are the ones that keep up with the times. Your career is your business and your brand.

You should ask yourself these questions:

How does my knowledge apply to what is happening in the world?

How is the world impacting my work?

Keep up with what’s going on around the world

Avery is constantly reading, keeping up with the news, with current trends.

It takes discipline to stay updated with what’s going on in the world.

Staying current with the news is a career advancement strategy. Some people think it’s wasting time. It’s not. It’s strategic.

Feeling stuck?

In another of his books, Outwitting the Devil, Napoleon Hill focuses on the things that hold us back, on the obstacles that we create in our own minds.

Outwitting the Devil and Think and Grow Rich helped Sharon transform her mindset. If you feel stuck, you should go and read Outwitting the Devil, with Sharon’s annotations.

Take control of your life and commit to it

Sharon believes that the steps to success are the same for men and women, but we tend to approach them differently. She asks women how much money and impact they want to make, and what is their deadline.

Sharon was getting frustrated with the conversation about work-life balance for women. When you start striving for success, you are ashamed of losing your balance. However, nobody is in balance. Women have so many more components in their lives, besides work and life: their financial, physical, spiritual, business, family and friends sides.

If you feel guilty about what happened yesterday, you will waste precious time today. Just acknowledge it and spend today differently. Take control of your life and commit to living one big life.

Women should stop complaining, and focus on their progress instead

More and more women are coming to the business table. When men and women are both at the table, you have the best of both worlds.

Sharon was getting frustrated with all the negativity, with women complaining about the men holding them back. Complaining attracts negative things. Instead, women should earn their status, and celebrate the progress they’ve made. If women focused on the positive, they would see more change quicker.

Sharon’s goal was to change the dialogue towards positivity and celebration.

Fear will always hold you back

At the end of the day, we have things that are embedded in our psyche that create fear. This fear holds us back from achieving the success that we deserve. It’s not just fear of success, it’s also fear of poverty, illness, criticism.

When you think about the subject of money, what did your parents say about it? Most likely they’ve made negative comments on it.

As a result, it’s no wonder that we grow up with this fear of money, of scarcity. Money becomes an emotional subject. We’re afraid we will never have enough. When we become successful, we’re afraid we’re going to lose it.

Once you acknowledge all that, you can release it and start looking at the world of abundance that we’re truly living in.

Time to play

Sharon also helped developed a board game for teenagers, ThriveTime for Teens. She wants to help young people make better financial choices.

The board game introduces the concepts of assets and liabilities. It also has a lot of humor. Every situation in the game has happened to either one of Sharon’s children, or to one of Sharon’s friends’ children.

ThriveTime creates a lot of conversation around the table. It also creates the opportunity of having the money conversation with your children, without it being so personal.

On this episode of The Ultimate Leadership Podcast, speaker and coach Fred Miller shares his nuggets of wisdom on how to deliver the most effective elevator speech to take your business to the next level.

Keep an eye on your facial expression

Oftentimes people assume that communication will happen naturally. In order to be a really great communicator, we need to study our communication skills.

Denise teaches seven communication components. The first one is facial expression.

Initial research showed that the first impression occurred in 10-15 seconds after talking to someone. Recent research has discovered another first impression that occurs in under one second. This impression is based on facial expression.

When you first look at another individual, the best facial expression to have is a neutral-to-positive open facial expression.

How important are eye contact and posture?

Denise’s second component is eye contact. We should mostly make eye contact, but we should break it a little bit every once in a while.

If we stare at someone and never look away, we tend to come off either as aggressive or attracted to the person.

The third component is your posture. We should make sure our posture is straight and erect, shoulders back. Posture will communicate to people whether we are interested or engaged, or even reliable.

What about the handshake?

In order to make a positive impression with your communication skills, you need to control your handshake. When we are shaking hands with someone, we are offering the person visual, tactile, and auditory information about ourselves.

A handshake communicates whether you are assertive, passive or aggressive, or whether you are glad to be there.

The just right handshake is firm but gentle. Along with the handshake, you are making direct contact, smiling and saying your name.

Use your hands more

The fifth component is about your hand movements. You should use your hands to describe and elaborate.

If you are nervous and fidgeting with your hands, put them on your side.

You shouldn’t touch your face or your hair if you are sitting at a table or in a group.

Control your voice tone

The sixth component is voice tone. It communicates whether you are feeling powerful or sure of the message you are delivering.

If we want to sound powerful and assertive, we should stay in the lower ranges of our voice tone.

Women tend to speak a bit higher. They have a widely varying intonational pitch pattern. That means that women like to go up and down the scale.

Avoid using fillers

The seventh component is loudness. A lot of people are too soft or too loud, and it becomes too distracting to the listener.

If we are too soft, people are making an effort to hear us. It is the speaker’s job to look for feedback in the listener to make sure they are loud enough.

We should also pay attention to our content and avoid using verbal crutches. These are repetitions of “um…” or “you know”. It’s more powerful to be silent than to use fillers because they take away your credibility or your power.

In order to become a great communicator, you have to practice, practice, practice.

On this episode of The Ultimate Leadership Podcast, career coach and bestselling author Thea Kelley shares her expertise on how to build a proactive strategy prior to your interview to finally get that job.

Why is interviewing so terrifying?

It’s very natural to be nervous about an interview. A lot of it is about fear of the unknown, a lack of control. You don’t know what to expect.

You should take control by having a proactive interview strategy. This is where leaders have an advantage because they are used to strategic planning.

You won’t get the job just by being qualified

The company may be interviewing an average of five candidates, all of whom are qualified.

Your task is not just to show that you’re qualified, but to stand out. To make yourself memorable as the best candidate.

It’s not a matter of magic, it’s a matter of having a proactive strategy. Most candidates will go to an interview without an overall strategy.

Brand yourself

Strategy has to be complemented with authenticity. Strategic planning has a lot to do with strengths and weaknesses.

You need to make an effort to identify what makes you stand out. What are your key selling points?

Start with making a list. You can ask yourself these questions:

What do I do better than most?

What skills do I have that are hard to find?

What’s my most impressive accomplishment in the last 5 years?

Is there anything impressive about my career trajectory?

What would my clients or managers say it makes me especially valuable?

Be REV: Relevant, Exceptional and Verifiable

The best key selling points to emphasize in an interview or on a resume need to be REV: Relevant, Exceptional and Verifiable.

The first interview question is important. You can answer it with an introduction that focuses on your key selling points. Right off the bat, you’re hitting the interviewers with a few memorable points about you.

You should use stories and examples from your work that illustrate your top selling points.

People tend to remember what they heard first and what they hear last. So you should end your interview by bringing your key selling points up again.

How to come across as authentic

Authenticity starts with telling the truth but goes beyond that. You can tell the truth and still come across as not being authentic.

One of the things that makes people sound inauthentic during an interview is reciting. It appears that they don’t have faith in their communication abilities enough to say it in a natural way.

If you’re reciting something you’ve memorized, you are not as believable.

Being conversational is part of being authentic. Painting a picture with stories and examples also makes you more authentic.

One of our most popular interviews last year was with Tom Goodlet. As we look at our goals for 2018, mentorship remains critical to our success as leaders so I wanted to repeat this episode so that we can keep the lessons in mind as we plan for the year ahead.

Mentorship is key to successful professional development and as leaders, we have the responsibility to offer ourselves as mentors to the next generation of business leaders.

But what is involved in a mentor-mentee relationship and how do you go about finding a suitable individual to work with?

To answer these questions we spoke to Tom Goodlet, co-author of the book MentorU.

There are many factors that go into defining our achievement. You should have a solid skill set and business expertise. One of the key ways you can develop this knowledge and these skills is by making mistakes. As we reflect on these mistakes we grow and know what to avoid in future.

Making mistakes is a part of our growth. But another way that we gain the required expertise and grow professionally is by finding a mentor.

Usually, there are two big failures in the business world. Firstly; the individuals don’t use and benefit from mentorship. But secondarily, the people that could be mentors aren’t stepping up to take that responsibility.

Aligning yourself with a mentor will allow you the opportunity to learn from their knowledge. They can guide you in developing future opportunities in your career and business.

So how do you best find a mentor? When you find a mentor, how do you know that they have your best interests in mind? How do you develop the trust in following your mentor’s guidance?

Tom’s expertise is in the religious institutions industry. He is skilled in Theology, Leadership, Event Planning, Discipleship, Pastoral Counseling, Curriculum Development, Mentorship and Volunteer Management. For more information about him and his book MentorU checkout www.mentoru.info.

Why is mentorship so important?

Mentorship is a dynamic tool that stands above the rest. Tom highlights the 2 main strengths of mentorship:

Mentorship allows you to go deep and grow fast. There are great resources available through conferences, podcasts, blogs etc. but with mentorship, you hone in on the mentee and you can be laser-focused on their growth. It’s an efficient way to learn and grow because the topic is ‘you’.

You get a sense of accountability. You have somebody to discuss mistakes made and learnings that come from business experience, dissect what has happened and learn from it. Being held accountable for your goals and actions keeps you focused on growth and the ability to analyze and reflect on mistakes helps you to learn.

Chris’ mentorship story from his time in the military:

When I was in the military, I had a Chief Master Sergeant who was complaining about a process.

I said ‘Chief, I think we need to try this.’

For dramatic purposes he slams his hands on the table and says ‘Sergeant, I’ve tried that a hundred times and it doesn’t work.’ And I felt about 2 inches tall.

But then he said ‘But who’s to say it doesn’t work the 101st time? Go ahead and give it a try.’

Well it didn’t work the 101st time, but he didn’t stifle my creativity.

And then after that process, we got to chat about it and he helped me reflect on what the challenge was. But I think that was a very valuable teaching moment for me.

Mentorship is a safe place to look at and learn from mistakes. We learn more by doing and so you should not be afraid of failure.

It’s not failure unless you give up. So long as you do dissect it and learn from it, it’s not actually a failure. Good mentors help you along, give you encouragement and see you through the dark time of mistakes to see the potential success that comes from learning experiences.

We need that cheering section, that mentor by our side to help get us into the celebration part of the process.

How do you find a mentor?

We have to be honest with ourselves going into mentorship. We know mentorship is beneficial for everybody, but not everybody is ready for mentorship.

You need 2 things:

There are some requirements you want to meet – Tom uses the acronym ‘CLEAR’ to help you identify who your mentor should be. More on that below.

It requires some resolve; some courage to take the step to commit to mentorship and the journey of working with your mentor to learn and grow.

Tom tells us we want to be able to make a CLEAR choice of who should be our mentor:

C: Connect – who do you naturally connect with? You don’t want to force a relationship with your mentor. You want to find a mentor that you are comfortable with and enjoy spending time with.

L: Learn – who can you learn from? Or who can learn from me?

E: Excited – who would you be excited to mentor you? You don’t want to have to manufacture excitement to work with a mentor. Find a mentor you are excited to work with.

A: Authentic – you want to find a mentor who is not trying to be somebody they are not. Somebody who is not in denial of their weaknesses. Someone that knows their strengths.

R: Reliability – you want to have a mentor that you can rely on to meet with you.

The other point that Tom makes is around resolve. Fear is often the indicator that we’re on to something good – if you are nervous or it feels risky to ask somebody to be your mentor, you are probably on the right track. Like asking somebody out on a first date.

If you can show the resolve to get past that fear, you’re likely to be setting up a relationship that gets you excited and motivated to make the most of mentorship.

How do you develop trust in following the guidance of a mentor?

If your mentor gives you some advice that you can’t see the value in yet, it’s important to trust the guidance of your mentor.

Tom suggests that time is the major factor. Mentorship is not something you should rush. You have to develop a relationship organically and not meet too frequently. Allow time to build trust with your mentor by meeting just every couple of weeks and allowing time to see the results of the advice given.

Taking the time to get to know each other is essential to have an understanding and trusting mentor relationship.

What is the responsibility of the mentee?

The nice thing about mentorship is that you have accountability both ways. As the mentee, you are responsible for being prepared for your mentorship meetings, ready to report how your career or business is developing. Your mentee is going to hold you accountable to actions, homework, follow-up.

Another responsibility of the mentee is to bring questions. You have to be prepared to get the most out of the time you spend together, so coming with a list of questions to ask your mentor/mentee is important.

Tom’s book is loaded with mentorship questions to help you in this.

Tom’s book, MentorU

Tom co-wrote MentorU with his friend and mentee, Matt Gardner.

It’s a universal first step for anybody who wants to start mentoring that leads to the individual’s next step because everybody’s next step is going to be different. Through the book, you build towards a strategic growth plan for the individual being mentored.

If you’re being a mentor, you’re always fed more when you’re feeding. Every time Tom has mentored somebody else, he has grown immensely. Mentoring delivers value both ways.

The book provides expert guidance on conducting a productive mentor-mentee relationship.

Leaders should serve their people

Servant leadership is an important factor in today’s leadership environment.

Management expert Ken Blanchard emphasized that: “The world is in desperate need of a different leadership role model. People have been conditioned to think of leadership only in terms of power and control”.

We need to have leaders who lead by serving their people, rather than through power and control.

Organizing your company as a network

Rather than perceiving the organization as a pyramid, you should perceive it as a network.

People at every level of the organization should be making decisions, not just people at the top.

In their monthly staff meetings, any staff member can add an agenda or propose an initiative to change something. This keeps everyone engaged.

More egalitarian structures within your organization

If you want to move your organization into a more servant leadership model, you should change your systems and structures. You have to move from class systems to egalitarian structures.

Decision-making is important. If decisions are made by the people at the top and the staff doesn’t know how to push an initiative, then it’s a hierarchical system. You need to set up your decision-making so that everyone can enter into the process.

Many organizations have two compensation systems: one designed to pay executives as much as possible, and the other designed to control employee cost. You should have only one compensation system. Everyone should be on it and it should be transparent.

Transparency makes a big difference

The approach in many organizations is that information is restricted. In Steve’s company, information is shared broadly. Everyone knows the salaries of everyone else.

The more people know about the organization, the more trust there is going to be in it. The employees will raise more issues the managers might not have thought of.

The management team invites staff members to join them during their meetings and discussions.

A new way of planning

The traditional approach to change is: an outside consulting group will take the executives to a retreat for a few days, and they will craft the strategic plans.

The approach Steve uses: they will bring together 50 or 100 people representing their stakeholder groups in an interactive means of planning over a few days where everyone has a voice. The implementing is happening on the spot.

Leaders who serve their people

Steve doesn’t think that their approach can work for leaders who are only concerned about their own advancement or prestige.

It really only works when leaders are trying to serve others. There is a mindset that has to go underneath that. The mindset of having the purpose to serve other purposes, not just yourself.

Getting your story out

People want to know how to develop their presentation skills so that they can get to the TEDx stage.

When Tricia first started working with speakers they had a lot of amazing ideas to share. She wondered “How can I get these ideas on the stage so that more people can be moved by them”?

She takes the idea and helps the presenter get the story out.

First steps on the journey to becoming a TEDx speaker

You have to be sure that your idea is uniquely yours. You should watch other TED talks and events.

Find out if many people have already talked about this. If they have, find a new idea.

When you become a TEDx speaker you elevate your credibility immediately. You have to be ready to take responsibility for what will happen once you become a TEDx speaker.

How to engage your audience

A TEDx event is a theatrical show. The best way to prepare is to work on your script first. Write your script in a way that allows you to turn it into a conversation with the audience.

You should really focus on rehearsing. A lot of people think that if they rehearse they will sound like a robot. If you rehearse so that you know the script inside and out, when you get on to the stage you can be free to express your idea.

Previews are very important. Do your talk in front of multiple audiences before you take the TEDx stage so that you can have the greatest impact.

Knowing who you are as a speaker

It’s important to know who you are as a speaker. If you are not funny naturally, don’t do a funny talk. If you are very shy, you’re going to require more practice in front of an audience.

Find someone who can help you. They can get to know who you are and then place you in an environment that is comfortable, but also theatrical, o that you can wow your audience.

If you are a speaker who works really well from bullet points, don’t memorize the script word for word. If you prefer to memorize the script word for word, make sure you are speaking as a conversation, not reciting from a page.

Finding a theme that resonates with you

Tricia asks the speakers and the audience to look beyond what they normally see. We should look beyond what is possible and potentially change the world by changing what we see in front of us.

If you are going to take a TEDx stage, find an event where the theme resonates with you. You have to be clear on what kind of event you want to be involved in.

You have one opportunity to get a TEDx video on YouTube and if it’s not good quality, it’s going to break your heart. When you are searching out TEDx events, find out who the organizer is, what the theme is, and what the production value is.

Should you use PowerPoint slides during your talk?

Should a speaker use PowerPoint slides? It’s all personal preference, based on what your talk needs. If they serve your talk, use them.

The speakers should not look back at the screen if they are using slides. They should stay engaged with the audience. The moment you turn away from the audience, you break the contact.

On this episode of The Ultimate Leadership Podcast, you meet best-selling author and one woman show June Cline who will let you in on her little secret: infusing humor in your workplace will bring in a tremendous return on investment.

On today’s podcast:

Is there really a place for humor in the workforce?

What is your comedic style?

How do we interact with people whose comedy style we are not comfortable with?

How to have ROI out of LOL

She discovered that when we start laughing and lightening up we build better relationships and are able to accomplish more.

June helps organizations and leaders to understand that their humor matters.

There has to be humor in the workplace, or we will lose our sanity. We have to be able to laugh at the situation and at ourselves in particular.

June’s four comedic styles

June speaks about four comedic styles. They are like behavioral styles, and there is no right or wrong approach.

We all possess all four styles. Depending on the situation we will gravitate our default to one style more than the other.

The first style of humor is the crazy one. Crazies are people with a bizarre, out there humor. They are typically very outrageous, and oftentimes their humor is very physical.

The crazy comedic style is the most frequently encountered.

Understanding that each one of us has his own comedic style

How do we interact with people whose comedy style we are not comfortable with?

This is the question June is answering through her work. Her mission is to heighten awareness and help people be more understanding towards each other.

We all come with our preferred comedic style. We shouldn’t be put off by someone else’s style of humor, instead we should try to understand it.

There are times when people are using humor as a weapon and are really coming after you. When that happens, you can call them out and say “That was harsh. Is that how you intended that?”

And you can come right back at them with the same intensity of what you think you got from them. But again, it may just be their style.

Emotional bank accounts

The second comedic style is the caustic one. Etymologically, sarcasm means “to tear the flesh to the bone”.

Oftentimes we hide the truth behind sarcasm when we are at work. That can be a very detrimental way to use humor. Sometimes you can be cynical without realizing it.

Caustic people tend to be more cynical, insulting, maybe even a bit more hateful. They tease, they taunt. Sometimes they are considered bullies.

Finding out about the concept of emotional bank accounts changed June’s life. For every emotional negative hit, it takes 20 positive hits or more to bring that back to equal.

The caring and cerebral comedic styles

The third comedic style is the caring one. The carings use personal, usually harmless humor. Usually, they are poking fun at themselves. They are very optimistic and are taking responsibility for their humor.

The forth one is the cerebral one. The cerebrals are too erudite. June calls cerebral humor English humor. The more you make people think about what you’ve said, they will go down a rabbit hole, and they won’t stay with you for the punchline.

The cerebrals are much more factual, data-driven, and intellectual. Their humor is dry and satirical. They love the phrase “If it goes without saying, let it”.

June’s quest for a happiness recipe

You can see the comedic culture of the company, of the team. And it blows people’s minds. Your sense of humor the way you see it and the way other people do, it can be very different.

In her book, Happiness Recipe, together with her friend Sandy Weaver Carman, June interviewed thought leaders, internationally-known speakers, and other experts to find out what their happiness recipe is.

They discovered that a lot of people don’t know what makes them happy. It’s something people should be clear on.

The top three things that make June happy are freedom, excitement, and adventure. When she realized this, she understood why certain jobs or certain people don’t work for her.

On the last episode for 2017 of The Ultimate Leadership Podcast, we bring you best-selling author and speaker Alan Zimmerman, who will introduce you his six secrets to peak performance. Find out why your attitude towards success matters, how to create your legacy, and how to achieve connective communication.

The number one secret to success is your attitude

One of the landmark pieces of research discovered that the number one secret to success is not education or IQ, it’s your attitude.

Most people have not yet figured out what happiness is to them. If you don’t know what happiness is to you, you will never find it. If you can’t define success for yourself, you can’t get it.

So many people say “I can’t help the way I feel” or “I’ve always been this way”. That is a lie. Attitudes are changeable and controllable.

One of Alan’s strategies is to see something positive in every situation. He doesn’t believe that life is totally good or bad, blank or white. Even a rotten situation has something positive in it.

It’s time to figure out your purpose

Alan’s second secret is purpose. How do you find one? Most people don’t give it much thought. They don’t go beyond thinking about getting a job and paying the mortgage. That’s survival, it’s not a purpose.

Purpose is a deeper driving force in life. When you have the purpose figured out, the amount of energy that comes with that is incredible.

In order to find your purpose, Alan suggests visualizing a three-legged stool. Each leg asks a question. When you answer all three questions you get to find your purpose.

The first question is: What are you good at? The second: What excites you? The third: What difference do you want to make?

Blocking mind blinders

Alan’s third secret is persistence. Two of his students made a research and found out that 92% of salespeople give up after the fourth no, but 60% of customers say no before they say yes.

You should refuse to use mind blinders. Mind blinders are small negative sentences that you tell yourself. When you tell yourself these kinds of things, you almost always fail.

If you catch yourself thinking or uttering a mind blinder, talk back to yourself “Stop it, just stop it” to neutralize its effect.

Whatever you do, perform with excellence

Alan’s forth secret is character. What can a person do to really build their character?

For years, we thought that character is old-fashioned and that it doesn’t fit with our society today anymore. The philosophy has been “Do whatever you want as long as you don’t get caught”.

Whatever you do, perform with excellence. Do your best, not just enough to get by. Always tell the truth.

If you have a blemish on your character, acknowledge it. Accept responsibility for it.

Knowing what the other person needs

Alan’s fifth secret is communication. Everywhere in the world, people are asking: “How do I get people to do what I want them to do?”

Alan uses the cooperation principle. To the degree you give other people what they need, they will give you what you need. You have to give the other person what they need before you get what you need. Most people have that backwards.

To achieve connective communication, a person must refrain from killer statements. Most of the time, these statements are used to shut people down.

Asking brave questions

Alan’s sixth secret is compassionate listening. This is accomplished by asking brave questions.

The average person is only tuned in to 25% of what is being said. Part of the problem is that a lot of our communication is functional communication, like “What time is dinner?”. It doesn’t build intimacy or teamwork. Brave questions go beyond the superficial. Who, what, where, why, how?

What are 3 ways we can serve our customers better? What are some values to instill in your corporate culture? What would you do differently? What was the highlight of your day?

People are very engaged with these kinds of questions. They listen better, they build connections.